Power to the Little People

“The nature of their content and control helps to shape the character and direction of American culture as a whole.” Robert Sklar points out in his book that since the beginning, U.S. films have developed a mass entertainment for the working class. With the invention of the moving picture, to dramatic productions, and then slapstick comedies, changes were happening everywhere in the first half of the 20th century and movies were growing with them.

The movie is first and foremost and invention. Science came first with the motion picture. The fact that they were trying to describe the rhythm of a horses’ steps didn’t help them become conscious that other people might be interested in it as well. In 1893, Thomas Edison’s kinetoscope came about, and then movies were shown in vaudeville and penny arcades. “The urban workers, the immigrants and the poor had discovered a new medium of entertainment without the aid…”

“As a business, and as a social phenomenon, the motion pictures came to life in the United States when they made contact with working-class needs and desires.” Edwin S. Porter’s The Great Train Robbery was one of the first great American films. He put on film, what regular people spoke about. For example, when an innocent passenger from the train tried to escape and was shot to death; some fable that one person could have told to another was now being looked upon with their own eyes. “Rescue movies…were races against time. Chases provided at least twice as much opportunity